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The NY Post ran a good article looking into whether the savings promised by door-to-door energy resale reps like IDT Energy ever really materialize for subscribers:

"I've had complaints from residents, as well as small businesses, who have unwittingly switched to a different energy provider and seen their bills go through the roof," said City Councilman John Liu (D-Queens).

One Carroll Gardens, Brooklyn, IDT customer - a bartender who gave her name as Carmel - said her electric bill jumped from $40 to $70, and she is anxious to cancel.

The NY Post ran a good article looking into whether the savings promised by door-to-door energy resale reps like IDT Energy ever really materialize for subscribers:

“I’ve had complaints from residents, as well as small businesses, who have unwittingly switched to a different energy provider and seen their bills go through the roof,” said City Councilman John Liu (D-Queens).

One Carroll Gardens, Brooklyn, IDT customer – a bartender who gave her name as Carmel – said her electric bill jumped from $40 to $70, and she is anxious to cancel.

“I’m never at home enough to use that much electricity,” she insisted.

“It’s a very volatile commodity,” Wanounou [IDT Energy’s chief operating officer] said. “There are times we have been more expensive than the local utility. There are countless months where we can show you we are substantially cheaper.”

Gerry Norlander of the Public Utility Law Project, a consumer group, said, “There’s no evidence that we’ve seen that customers who switch save any significant amount of money over time, and there are plenty of stories of abuses.”

It should be noted the NYPost is hardly the arbiter of all the news that’s fit to print. Even still, it shows that while ESCOs like IDT-Energy theoretically offer savings, some evidence seems to suggest the reality is otherwise. — BEN POPKEN